As 2018 draws to a close, we look at some of the biggest marketing blunders of the year. From backfiring tweets to political privacy blunders, there were plenty of mistakes from companies that should know better. Read on, learn from the mistakes and hope your team doesn’t make the list in 2019…

From Amazon's car boot deliveries to Samsung's foldable phones, technology took us in some strange directions during 2018. In this special article, we celebrate the 10 weirdest news stories of the year.

Recently, WeChat launched the WeChat Mini Games Creativity Incentives Program to encourage innovation on the platform, including recognizing highly creative games with a "Creativity-Certified" label, better revenue distribution plans, and initial user traffic.

2018 was another big year for digital marketing, with the rise of voice search, AI going mainstream and Walmart buying FlipKart. This was the year that Spotify went public, Huawei overtook iPhone and a video game sparked a dance craze. In this special report, we’ve identified 17 of the biggest trends of the year.

New data published today by Kantar Media shows that reality television has driven the highest level of social media engagement over the course of the past year, closely followed by current affairs programmes.

As Christmas is drawing closer new research finds that AI will play a major role in 84% of UK households this year, despite only 20% saying they would trust AI to help them run their perfect Christmas Day.

This year was certainly a big year for mobile, marking the 10 year birthday of both the iOS App Store and Google Play. As we embark on the next 10 years of the app stores, we are on the cusp of new advancements in the app economy that should lead to an exciting 12 months ahead. To navigate this environment, Paul Barnes, Territory Director Northern Europe and Middle East, at App Annie has compiled five key mobile trends.

Amazon has become its very own search engine, seeing a 24% increase in people beginning their browsing on the ecommerce giant’s website resulting in better conversion rates and more exclusive buyers than the industry standard, according to new research.

John Lewis has come out top in the battle of the UK Christmas ads, generating 135% more engagements for the brand on social media in the five minutes immediately after each ad airing, according to new data.

According to Instagram four in five users now follow at least one business and two-thirds of visits to Instagram business profiles are from people who don’t yet follow them. Phil Rooke at Spreadshirt looks at why Instagram could be about to have a big final quarter. Partly because it offers the best relationships between consumers and businesses.

Rebuilding trust, storyliving, paid social, cracking the commerce code, and the rise of messaging identified as the most important social trends for businesses of all sizes to seize in 2019, according to a new report.

From fake movies to dog selfies, 2018 marked another big year for video viral marketing case studies. Personalised ads, pranks and long-form storytelling were key themes this year. To round off the year, our team has assembled 20 standout virals from around the world for your viewing pleasure...

One of the worst (and most dangerous) viral trends of the Year was the Tide Pod challenge featured people making videos of biting or eating the extremely hazardous detergent pods. The P&G- owned laundry brand responded with this short video featuring a well-known NFL star to set the record straight.

The online mattress delivery market has been a booming market recently, but this long-form ad from Purple stood out from the crowd with its unusual experiment, sharp use of humour and striking visuals.

To promote the launch of its cutting-edge new running shoes, Epic React, Nike developed an immersive Reactland initiative that transported users into the heart of a virtual video game (complete with an Avatar of themselves).

This ad from iZettle, who make cheap and accessible card readers, is equal parts Black Mirror and Blade Runner (with some pretty clear homages to the latter). The ad posits a world where one giant corporation has taken over all commerce.

A great example of long-form engaging content, Tinder recruited the talents of Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski from Netflix's Queer Eye to help one Tinder user optimise their profile and find their next date.

It was casting choice that baffled the world: US comedy favourite Danny McBride playing the son of Mick “Crocodile” Dundee in a reboot of that the iconic 80’s film. But it was all an elaborate hoax to promote Australian Toursim.

Pepsico-owned brands Doritos and Mountain Dew combined forces to issue a creative ad that aired during the Super Bowl which combined a social media hashtag campaign with celebrity power as Morgan Freeman and Peter Dinklage faced off in a lip-sync rap battle.

One of the worst (and most dangerous) viral trends of the year was the Tide Pod challenge featured people making videos of biting or eating the extremely hazardous detergent pods. The P&G- owned laundry brand responded with this short video featuring a well-known NFL star to set the record straight.

One of the most popular podcasts in the world, ‘My Dad Wrote A Porno’, releases its eagerly-awaited Christmas special exclusively on Spotify for two weeks. ‘My Dad Wrote a Christmas Porno 3’ is now available now for all users - both free and Premium - on Spotify.

Six in ten UK businesses plan on spending more than £100k on digital transformation in the next two years as 69% admit they won’t survive unless they embrace digital transformation, according to new research.

Google and Disney have announced a new global strategic relationship that will see Disney bring its entire global digital video and display business onto Google Ad Manager, which will serve as its core ad technology platform.